Most of my @UMichLaw students wrote op-eds for their final assignments in Law in Rural America. The goal was to take scholarship from class, apply it to a current event, & explain to broad audience how expertise in rural law sheds new light on rural America & its challenges….1/

The assignment, much like the @IReadJotwell assignments, brought out some of my students’ best writing. Here’s just a GIF-filled sampling of the cool topics covered in the op-eds: 2/

I bet you didn’t expect one of the op-eds to be about Tiger King, did you? One of my students persuasively argued in their op-ed that the portrayal of rural queer people in Tiger King might reinforce negative stereotypes that are routinely expressed in legal opinions. 3/

One student wrote an op-ed about rural plea mills in Texas. In rural Texas, counties are more likely to use a court-appointment model for PDs which results in decreased quality of representation. 4/

Another student wrote an op-ed arguing that to effect positive change for rural residents, rural policy making must disregard even positive stereotypes about rural communities and ground policies in on-the-ground realities of rural spaces. 5/

There was also an op-ed titled “The Flint Water Crisis is Everywhere in Rural America,” which highlighted the access-to-water challenges in rural communities along the Texas-Mexico border and in California. 6/

One of my students argues that “Rural Communities Need Pork Barrel Spending, Not Pork Farms,” in an op-ed that suggests that earmarks are not waste but important investments in rural communities and compassionate governance. 7/

Rural response rates to the 2020 Census are low—and one op-ed explains the potentially disastrous effects that will have on rural voting power, economic investment, and service provision for vulnerable rural populations like Native communities and domestic violence victims. 8/

Several students wrote about the unique challenge rural communities are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic, including lack of access to healthcare, poverty, and a flood of infected city-slickers. 9/

Speaking of COVID 19, one op-ed writer argued very persuasively that the CARES Act will fail rural communities because policymakers did not consider the unique experiences of rural workers and their ability to access social services. 10/

And, last but not least: Access to abortion in rural communities is especially limited, and that’s why one op-ed writer argues that telemedicine for medication abortions should be made available for rural women, whose isolation and increased poverty restricts their access.
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